Australia may tour Bangladesh next year

Cricket Australia's chief executive James Sutherland has revealed that Australia’s first Test tour to Bangladesh may take place next year after the planned series last October was postponed due to security concerns.

READ MORE: Australia postpone Bangladesh tour citing security concerns

Cricket Australia Chief Executive James Sutherland has confirmed that CA has recently held "off-line" discussions with the Bangladesh Cricket Board and that the series has been pencilled into the international schedule for the 2017 southern hemisphere winter subject to security clearances, reports cricket.com.au.

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Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury , when contacted about the issue, revealed that the BCB had discussions on the matter with the CA on the sidelines of the International Cricket Council board meeting in Dubai. 

"We were close to finalising the FTP [Future Tours Programme] commitments with Australia till 2023 [when the current cycle will conclude]," Nizamuddin said. "We had also almost come to an agreement about Australia's pending tour of Bangladesh, which may take place in 2017."

The CEO was not ready to commit to a specific date for the tour, but it was learned that it may happen in September 2017. 

Australia were scheduled to play two Tests and a tour match in Dhaka and Chittagong last October and had named a 15-man squad that included uncapped players Cameron Bancroft and Andrew Fekete along with recalled spinners Glenn Maxwell and Stephen O'Keefe.

But 48 hours before the squad was due to fly out, CA announced that departure had been delayed "due to concerns about the safety and security of the Australian Test team" based on advice received from the Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

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A week later, Sutherland announced that the tour had been postponed following information gleaned from DFAT, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and CA's internal head of security who was working closely with the BCB and Bangladesh authorities in Dhaka.